Method and Apparatus for Providing Voice Mailbox Function in Poc Service

1. A method of providing a voice mailbox function in a Push-To-Talk over Cellular (PoC) service, comprising: if a voice mailbox of at least one called user is to be connected in response to receiving a session establishment request from a calling user, determining whether the session corresponding to the session establishment request is a one-to-many session; and recording a message from the calling user in the voice mailbox if the session is a one-to-many session; and if the session is a one-to-one session, playing a voice prompt to the calling user; and recording a message from the calling user in the voice mailbox if the calling user selects to leave the message.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: determining whether a voice recording of the voice mailbox is to be played based on a response message from the voice mailbox; and if the voice recording should be played, playing the voice recording by assigning a floor to the voice mailbox.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising: after playing the voice recording, determining whether an access mode of the voice mailbox is playback access only based on the response message; and if the access mode is playback access only, terminating the session with the voice mailbox.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein, the voice mailbox comprises more than one voice mailbox, and the voice recordings of the more than one voice mailbox are played by assigning the floor in turn.

5. A Push-To-Talk over Cellular (PoC) service server, comprising: a communication module, for receiving and transmitting messages; a control module, for determining whether to connect to a voice mailbox of at least one called user in response to receiving a session establishment request from a calling user, and for managing the communication module to send a session request to the voice mailbox; a determination module, for determining whether a session is of one-to-one session type or one-to-many session type in response to receiving a response message from the voice mailbox; a prompting module, for playing a voice prompt to the calling user if the session is of one-to-one session type; and a processing module, for managing the voice mailbox to record a message left by the calling user if the user selects to leave a message or if the session is of one-to-many session type, or to terminate the session with the voice mailbox if the calling user selects to leave no message.

6. The PoC service server according to claim 5 , wherein, before the session request is sent to the voice mailbox, the determination module determines whether the voice mailbox of the called user is available, and if the voice mailbox of the called user is available, the control module is notified; otherwise, a call to the called user is terminated.